Nick's Blog

Nor-Cal Life and Adventures in Entrepreneurship

Entries for the ‘Business Profiles’ Category

Best Redesign Ever: Chrysler PT Cruiser

When Chrysler launched the PT Cruiser as a year 2000 model, they might not have seen the huge success story the car would turn into.  They built it off the platform for the underwhelming Dodge Neon, and that’s why I’m calling it a redesign.

In January 2001, the PT Cruiser won Car & Driver’s Car of [...]

Target Brand is now “Up & Up”

Over the past year, Target has been replacing their store brand products with redesigned and re-branded “Up & Up” products.  The previous store brand products very clearly took their design and color schemes from the brand leader they were imitating.  For example, their old bottle of ibuprofen closely resembled a bottle of Advil.  This is [...]

Volvo Overseas Delivery

When you buy a new Volvo, you have the option of taking delivery at the Volvo factory in Gothenburg, Sweden.  There’s no extra cost, and Volvo will even give you 2 round-trip plane tickets to make the journey.  Then, they’ll give you a free night’s hotel stay, let you drive your new car all over [...]

Toyota Recall Overhyped?

To err is human.  But apparently people believed Toyota was inhuman, incapable of making mistakes.  I’m surprised by the media and public outrage over their recent brake recalls.
Yes, the brakes are obviously a critical part of the safety system and yes it’s tragic that people died.  But it’s not like Toyota intentionally set out to [...]

Yahoo’s Comeback Bid

Yahoo has been losing market share to Google for years, and now is determined to fight back.  In a bold move that surprisingly has garnered zero press and somehow went unnoticed by the few remaining Yahoo searchers, Yahoo has increased the maximum length of description text for search advertisers from 70 characters to 71 characters.

That [...]

Capital One Customized Credit Card

I’m kind of pumped about my new business credit card Capital One is sending me.  I uploaded the Shoes ‘R Us logo — which will probably be unreadable on the actual card depending on the resolution — and picked this out of control orange background.

Awesome.  And even more awesome, it’s free.  I think it’s pretty [...]

Coinstar

At its most basic level, business is about:

Taking inputs,
Producing something of value with them,
And then selling the outputs for more than they cost to make.

Few businesses do this more conspicuously than Coinstar.  Their gross profit margin is visible to everyone: 8.9%.  Feed $100 into their machine, and it will hand you back $91.10. But [...]

In-N-Out’s Secret Menu

I’m so hungry right now, In-N-Out sounds delicious!  Have you ever felt out-of-the loop when ordering at In-N-Out?  I have, and it’s all because of their secret menu that up until now, only native Californians have had access to.  Well actually it’s posted on their website… but still.

I’m convinced there are more “styles” than just [...]

Jack FM

Jack FM operates on FM 96.5 KJAQ in Seattle, and uses the slogan, “Playing what we want.”
After I heard that, it led me on the following circular brain quest, which isn’t too far removed from The Princess Bride “so I clearly can’t choose the glass in front of me” scene.
In radio, “Playing what we want” [...]

Del Taco … “Of The Taco”?

That’s a curious name for a restaurant.  I guess it was originally “Casa del Taco,” which makes more sense.

Either way, I had my first Del Taco experience when we stopped for lunch on our drive up to Auburn for the wedding festivities.  The chicken burrito was OK, and the combo meal came with french fries… [...]